Students get hands-on experience at Nardoo Hills

Conservation and Land Management students from the University of Ballarat recently visited Bush Heritage's Nardoo Hills reserves to learn how monitoring techniques are used on the ground by conservation organisations.

Jim Radford, Ecological Monitoring Coordinator at Bush Heritage Australia, provided his expertise, taking students through a number of practical exercises. Students completed a transect exercise, which included measuring tree canopy cover, assessing the health of trees, and collecting information about ground cover, including vegetation, litter, logs and bare soil. Jim also discussed the ‘bird minutes' bird-surveying technique used at Nardoo Hills. This technique is the standard method used by Bush Heritage Australia for bird surveying, and allows information on the abundance and diversity of birds to be gathered.

The Nardoo Hills reserves, located in north-central Victoria, contain grassy woodland habitats that are home to many declining woodland bird species.

Also in attendance was Jeroen van Veen, Field Officer at Bush Heritage Australia. Jeroen provided some interesting information on weed and rabbit control on the reserve, as well as the Greenhouse Balanced project he is managing on land adjacent to the Bush Heritage site.

The exercise added to the range of skills the students have, giving them valuable experience in environmental monitoring for conservation and land management.

University of Ballarat students at the Nardoo Hills reserves. PHOTO: JENNIFER JOHNSON